Cookie Time: Butterscotch Pecan Cookies Recipe by Big Girls, Small Kitchen

CakeSpy Note: I am so glad you have plenty of money, because there's another book you should buy this year in addition to my CakeSpy oeuvre. It's called In the Small Kitchen: 100 Recipes from Our Year of Cooking in the Real World and it's by Cara and Phoebe of Big Girls Small Kitchen. Here's a guest post from these talented sweeties:

There are about a million reasons to bake, most of which are enumerated right here on CakeSpy. Sweets bring such pleasure, and they’re the easiest treats to share.

But sometimes a batch of baked goods is not just about the chocolate (or the butter or the sugar or the maple syrup).  We send off treats when we want to express an emotion or make a gesture that we’re just not eloquent enough to put into words. We bake, box, and deliver, and poof!—we’ve conveyed how we feel. 

So whether it’s guilt, atonement, or pity you need to demonstrate, we’ve got the sweet for you in our book,  In the Small Kitchen, which comes out on Tuesday, May 24^th! A whole section, called “Tins of Treats” is organized by emotion and the treat that goes with it. (In case you can’t wait, the answer is: brownies assuage guilt, “lotus” blondies are for atonement, and classic chocolate chip cookies are best for ameliorating a pitiable situation.)

For now, something simple: cookies for gratitude. It’s possible this is what cookies were invented for.

These Butterscotch Pecan Cookies are something special, as is fitting when you’re thankful. Their toothsome texture makes each bite melt in your mouth, and the sweet taste of butterscotch is balanced every so slightly by espresso. But the best part is the sweet-and-savory coating: these babies get a roll in a sugar-salt mix before going into the oven to caramelize and bake. Gratitude, indeed!

--Cara and Phoebe, bloggers at Big Girls, Small Kitchen and authors of In the Small Kitchen.

Butterscotch Pecan Cookies

Makes 24-30 cookies

If you can’t find butterscotch extract, use 3/4 cup butterscotch chips and decrease the pecans to 1 ¼ cups.

• 2 cups (8-ounces) raw pecans
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 teaspoon butterscotch extract (see note)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon espresso powder (optional)

 for coating the cookies:

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment (or just bake in batches).

2. Spread the pecan halves on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes, checking every minute or so after 5 minutes have passed. You want the nuts to be fragrant and sweet but not burnt. Set aside to cool. (You can do this step a while in advance.)

3. Put 3/4 cup cooled pecans in a food processor. Pulse on and off until the pecans are just ground--you don't want to turn them into a paste.

4. On a cutting board, chop the remaining 1 ¼ cups pecans into small pieces. Put the ground and chopped nuts in a small bowl and add the flour, baking soda, and teaspoon salt. Stir to combine and set aside.

5. In a large mixing bowl with a handheld mixture, cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy.

6. Add the egg, beat until combined, then mix in the extracts and espresso powder.

7. Pour the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix just until the flour is incorporated.

8. Prepare the coating: mix together the additional sugar and salt on a shallow plate. Form the dough into 2-inch balls, and roll the balls in the sugar-salt mixture until coated. Place the balls on a baking sheet 3 inches apart.

9. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until the bottoms are golden and the tops are just barely firm. Remove and let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before gently removing to racks or plates to cool completely.

Cake Byte: Win a Copy of CakeSpy's Book on Not Martha!

A couple of things, sweeties.

1. On the totally awesome-sweet-magical website Not Martha, You can win a copy of my totally awesome book, coming out this fall, entitled CakeSpy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life! Sorry, you still have to wait til the fall to receive it, but, you know, it sure will be a sweet thing to look forward to.

2. Speaking of that book, did you know I get to go on a book tour? For sure I will be visiting bakeries -- you got that right, I am visiting BAKERIES, not bookstores for the most part -- in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, New York, New Jersey, and maybe Chicago. Maybe Philadelphia, DC, and/or Boston if I can talk my publisher into it. The tour is called "Tour de Sweet" and I will announce dates in the next month or so.

3. For fun, I thought you might like to see an early picture of what ended up being the cover design. When you receive your book (whether you buy or win it) you can compare and see how the design was altered for the ultimately totally sweet back cover.

What else do I need to tell you? GO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE.

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Links

 Photo: My Kitchen AddictionW-e-e-k-e-n-d. That is all. Well, except for these...

1. For when you want to kiss like a cupcake: Cupcake Lip Gloss!
2. Sweet! CakeSpy Shop featured as one of "A Million Cool Things to Do In Seattle".
3. OMG! Can someone throw me this exact Lego Pirate Party for my birthday?
4. Stuff it! Caramel-stuffed sugar cookies. Le Nom.
5. Nibble on this: The Nibble now has a gourmet shop, and it is filled with sweet stuff.
6. Nutella bliss cupcakes: Like, OMG!
7. Places I must visit: Norske's Nook, Osseo, WI. Read this account of it by writer James Norton!
8. Proof is in the Pudding: Rhubarb Pudding Cake by Kate Lebo.
9. Hold the phone. HOLD EVERYTHING. Crumb! Cake! Cookie! (thanks, Rare Bird Finds!)
10. Sweets on a stick: Bakerella talks about starting a trend with cake pops.
11. Glazed and Confused: I want to visit Beyond Glaze in Draper, UT. (thanks, Hilary, for the tip!)
12. Sweet! Savory! Awesome! I cannot wait for Keren Brown's upcoming book, Food Lovers' Guide to Seattle: Best Local Specialties, Markets, Recipes, Restaurants & Events (Food Lovers' Series).
13. Speaking of books I adore, you should check out this "true life" pastry chef memoir, Spiced: A Pastry Chef's True Stories of Trails by Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes on in the Kitchen by Dalia Jurgensen.

Pastry Profiles: The Majestic Bar from Corina Bakery, Tacoma WA

Riddle me this. What's a Majestic Bar?

No, it's not a bar at which they serve grandiose alcoholic beverages (though, come to think about it, such an establishment wouldn't be so bad, would it be?).

No, the Majestic Bar, at least at the lovely and amazing Corina Bakery in Tacoma, WA, was described like this to me:

"Like a magic cookie bar but with frosting & MORE chocolate chips." 

I know--like poetry, right? Of course, if you're not familiar with the Magic Cookie Bar (also called Hello Dolly Bars and 7 Layer Bars, and other names), let me give you a primer. This decadent bar cookie starts out with a graham cracker base upon which several layers of deliciousness are piled, including but not limited to sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, and nuts. They are rich and delicious. They also make a great pie, with the ingredients distributed slightly differently.

But when you make the upgrade to the Majestic Bar, you're on decadence overload, in the best way possible.

To sum it up: If you are what you eat, you might just become the Monopoly Man by the time you finish this big bar of awesome.

Of course, Corina also has a very worthy case full of other stuff, like this:

The Majestic Bar, available at Corina Bakery, 510 6th Avenue, Tacoma WA; online here.

Taking It To the Sweet: All The News That's Fit To Eat and a Sweet Giveaway

Fact 1: CakeSpy Loves to bake. 

Fact 2: CakeSpy is a prolific baker. 

Fact 3: CakeSpy Loves mischief.

It may not be scientific or anything, but what all of these facts add up to is generally lots of fun. Here's how it went down last night.

Now, it is true that I had recently made truffles, gooey butter cake, and millionaire's shortbread for various baking experiments and projects, but when I received a parcel of the new Naturally Nora cookie mixes, I couldn't help but bake up a batch or two.

The chocolate chip cookies were my quarry, and I made two batches: one "plain", and one with two tablespoons of peanut butter added. The cookies came out quite nicely, I think, with a nice, nugget-y look and a soft on the inside, lightly crispy on the outside texture. The peanut butter, while not necessary for deliciousness, sure didn't hurt things (does it ever?).

But now I had a problem: a cookie surplus!

Luckily, this is, as problems go, not such a bad one, so I decided to share my sweet bounty with the world at large. Yup: time to Take it to the Sweet!

and so I put the cookies in sweet twosomes in bags, tied them with ribbon, and wrote sweet little notes to go along with them.

and then I decided on the best place to have a positive and sweet impact: the newsstand! Why? Well, the news can be--how do we say, kind of a downer--so this seemed like a natural and especially good place to brighten someone's day. I think that even if the finder might not be brave enough to eat these mystery cookies, the fact that they found them might just, you know, kind of give them pause in their everyday life, add a sweet aspect to their day, and at least give them a good story.

I chose this lineup on 15th Avenue East because it was under a streetlight and just seemed like a nice little row.

I put some cookies inside of each box, but in the case of USA today, which had not yet been stocked, I put it on the outside, near the payment slot--maybe it would brighten the night of the newspaper delivery-person?

Here's proof that Tom Skerrit loves cookies:

I thought this one, on top of Seattle Weekly, worked especially well.

So there you go--even the news can be made sweeter!

Have a totally sweet day, love CakeSpy.

P.S. Giveaway Alert! Naturally Nora has also kindly offered up a sweet giveaway! Want to win some cookie mix? Sweet! To enter, simply leave a comment below (US only, giveaway closes next friday, May 27 at noon PST) or on the CakeSpy Facebook Page saying how you'd make the world (or maybe just a friend's day) sweeter with these cookies! 

Sealed with a Kiss: Potato Kisses Recipe

You may not know this, but during the Great Depression, when many ingredients were scarce, an unexpected ingredient had a bit of a heyday in the world of confectionery: the Potato! 

And I don't mean lumpy but delicious baked goods or candy bars named after their resemblance to the potato. I mean treats made with actual potatoes--usually mashed, and added (I imagine) as a sort of flour substitute / body-builder, and as an absorber of other flavors around it.

While the potato's period of vogue as a component of confectionery seems to have faded, it was fun to make this recipe for Potato Kisses; this is the traditional recipe, but for next week's Serious Eats post, I am going to do a modern-day (and in my opinion, more delicious!) version.

I found this recipe in Who Wants Candy? by Jane Sharrock, where she says "once quite popular as an after-dinner treat with our grandparents and great-grandparents, potato candies are now ssomewhat of a novelty, with only a handful of lucky people knowing how delicious they can be." The book also includes recipes for Wacky Potato Fudge and Potato fondant.

Potato Kisses

• 1/2 cup unseasoned hot mashed potatoes
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 3 1/2 ounces sweetened flaked coconut

Procedure

1. Cover a countertop area or large baking sheet with waxed or parchment paper.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the mashed potatoes and butter, mixing well. Gradually add the sugar, blending until smooth. Stir in the almond extract and coconut; drop by spoonfuls on to the paper. Store in an airtight container.

Make it in a Shake: Nanaimo Bar Milkshake Recipe

File under "Unholy, but Wholly Delicious": The Nanaimo Bar Shake.

That's right.

When I recently found myself with an excess of Nanaimo Bars--to the point where they were just on the verge of getting stale--I thought to myself, "how can I revive these sweet treats for an extra-awesome treat?". The answer was swift and obvious: make it in a shake!

The result when you give the richest, most decadently addictive bar cookie on earth gets a butterfat upgrade? You have yourself a frosty froth of fantastic, that's what you've got. 

Here's how to make this magic happen at home. 

You're welcome.

Nanaimo Bar Shake

• 1 Nanaimo Bar
• 2 scoops ice cream, vanilla or chocolate, or one of each
• milk or cream, to thin (up to 1/4 cup)

 Procedure

But in a blender. Blend. Add more milk/cream if you want it more sippable. Enjoy.

Sweet Honey: Honey-Almond Cantuccini from Ancient Grains

I always love meeting a new cookie. So I was delighted to make the acquaintance of Cantuccini in the newly-released book Ancient Grains for Modern Meals: Mediterranean Whole Grain Recipes for Barley, Farro, Kamut, Polenta, Wheat Berries & More by Maria Speck, in which they are introduced thusly:

"Small almond biscotti are called cantuccini, or "little nooks" in the Tuscany region of Italy. These are honey-sweetened and delicately flavored with almonds in two forms--a finely ground meal and whole toasted nuts. Watch these twice-baked cookies closely, as you don't want them to brown too much and lose their fine fragrance. You will need extra almond meal for the work surface."

Honey-Almond Cantuccini

 Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup lightly packed almond meal (3.5 ounces)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted skin-on whole almonds
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

 Procedure

1. Whisk together the pastry flour, almond meal, and salt in a large bowl, and then stir in the almonds. Make a well in the center. In a medium bowl, using a large whisk, thoroughly blend the olive oil, honey, vanilla, and lemon zest until thick and syrupy, about one minute. Add to the center of the dry ingredients and combine, using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, just until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix. Cover the bowl with a plate and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, position a rack in the center of your oven and preheat to 300 degrees F.
3. Line a large rimless sheet with parchment paper.
4. Lightly sprinkle your work surface with almond meal. Cut the dough inside the bowl into four equal pieces. It will be soft and sticky. Briefly knead each piece a few times to smooth and form into a log, about 7 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. If almond pieces protrude, gently press them in while working the dough. Add more almond meal to your work surface if needed. Repeat with the remaining dough. Place logs on the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches in between.
5. Bake the logs until the tops show small cracks, firm up, and just start to brown--32 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven, and carefully slide the parchment paper with the logs onto a wire rack to cool for about 15 minutes. Leave the oven on.
6. Transfer logs to a cutting board. Using a large, sharp serrated knife, cut each log diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slice. Return the parchment paper to the baking sheet; place the slices upright (not cut-side up) on the baking sheet.
7. Bake until the cantuccini feel dry to the touch at the cut sides (not on the top) and just start to brown at the edges, 15-17 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before storing. They freeze well for up to 1 month.

Total Brownie Overload: Brownie Upside-Down Brownie Recipe for Serious Eats

Om nom nomWhat on earth is a Brownie Upside-Down Brownie?

First, think to yourself: "Pineapple Upside-Down Cake". Now, replace "pineapple" with "brownie" and "cake" with "brownie." Now you are getting the idea. This brilliant notion came to me by way of Vickie, the designer behind A Mano Jewelry and, apparently, a whiz in the kitchen.

Starting with a buttery, brown sugar base, a layer of bite-sized brownies is then coated with decadent brownie batter, baked and then flipped for the most decadently, buttery, chocolatey treat you could possibly imagine. Advice: eat now, and diet another day.

Note: Use either pre-packaged brownie bites, such as these, or homemade (almost erring on under-baked) brownies for the topping part; they will simply melt into the brownie batter in the most deliciously chocolaty fashion.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

Sweet Bite: Cookies N Cream Truffles from Whole Foods, Seattle

Sometimes you just need a two-pound slice of chocolate cake.

But in the unlikely event that you have a lighter appetite, if you find yourself in Whole Foods, you might want to consider their made-in-house truffles. On a recent visit to the Roosevelt location in Seattle (the one most likely to see Dave Matthews, I hear), I saw cookies and cream and German Chocolate varieties; I decided to give the Cookies and Cream one a try.

A little more substantial than a typical pre-packaged truffle but not quite as heavy as a full-size brownie, cupcake, or cake slice, I found the truffle extremely agreeable both in size, quantity, and in flavor: a smooth chocolate coating (fresh, not bloomed and stale!) containing a rich oreo creme-and-chocolate filling.

A sweet little find; available by the pound, they will sell you them individually upon request; they average about $1 each depending on weight.

Truffles by Whole Foods, made on-site in Seattle (and maybe near you too?).